DAS ALTE LEID

"The Old Sorrow"

• Secondary Characters

Early Life-Monterey

Before Anahita was even born, problems arose in her life. She was an unplanned child who took her parents completely by surprise. Her parents are incredibly fearful to be parents, the example they had as their parents made incredibly damaging mistakes to their children. Satomi especially did not want to be a mother, being pregnant was a horrible, triggering time for her, and she was left severely depressed. Once Anahita was born, Satomi retreated to her room, and Sasha had to take on the role of both father and mother. After enough neglect, Sasha takes Anahita away from their home and leaves Satomi temporarily, watching Satomi abuse their child in real time was to much to just simply reprimand her for.

This doesn't last for longer than two months, Anahita's parents are together again, Satomi left alone with just self reflection was horrified to see themself turn into their own mother who was never there for them, and Sasha realized he simply can't live without Satomi. As a young child, Anahita would always be closer to her father, he was the one who was always there. Sasha refused to let his own troubled childhood be repeated for his own daughter, and fiercely went out of his way to enforce that will. Satomi still felt immense guilt for their own absence and tries to make amends becoming more active a little later in Anahita's life, but the subtle rift between them is apparent.

Schooling

Anahita is a friendly and energetic child who played in sports, but was extremely temperamental. She'd often get into fights with other children who tried to make fun of her, mostly for being a tomboy. The older she grew, the more scrutiny she'd face for how masculine and angry she was. Anahita is very tall, almost 6', has a muscular build, and a very hairy face. She initially felt no shame for these things, but hated the treatment she gets from her peers because of it. Her temperament gained her very few friends once she was in high school.Her one friend that she liked more than simply just a friend was Cybil Acuña, who went by Kitty. Anahita even tried to befriend all of Kitty's friends, but to other girls, Anahita was a pet project. She couldn't catch their passive aggressive comments immediately and she wanted to fit in somewhere badly. In a friend group of girls, Anahita tried to present more feminine even if it was uncomfortable, she'd do anything they say to fit in. Anahita never realized that Kitty was somewhat the same, extremely insecure with her sense of self, and was ever changing aspects of her personality to fit in with others. Around her friends, Kitty was meaner.

Enough teasing and passive aggressive comments about her person and attempts to completely change who she is lead to Anahita beating one of the members of her so called friend group. The pet project was over, Anahita is alone again and now expelled from school. It was a complete shock to her parents, who she did not like to disclose more personal aspects of herself to other than some sudden emotional outburts. Her father Sasha made her switch schools, so her senior year of high school was spent alone around new people she somewhat tolerated. At home, Sasha took on more of a drill sergeant persona in disciplining Anahita, harshly overcorrecting her behavior, In the meantime, Anahita took up smoking marijuana in an attempt to regulate her mood.The time alone gave her some time for retrospection. If she hated being compared to a man so much, why was it so hard to be a girl? Why did acting as feminine as possible feel like nails against chalkboard? Anahita finally caved and spoke to her parents, first her father, who awkwardly and abruptly sent her over to speak to her mother. When speaking to her mom Satomi, things clicked into place; they essentially came out as transgender to each other. Satomi never felt like a woman either, and felt that she was in between being a woman and a man, but closer to being a man. It put into words what Anahita felt, not exactly a man or woman, but for Anahita she felt more like both. Her mother told her about how if she could've transitioned without her family disapproving, she would've, and urges Anahita to actually do it if she really wanted to, her parents love her the same.

Adulthood

The time he sees Cybil again comes when Anahita finally graduates, where she profusely apologizes to Anahita for how she treated him. Anahita takes the opportunity to tell Cybil all the feelings he had, that he loved her at one point. Cybil felt something akin to Anahita's feelings, but couldn't allow herself to be seen dating the school freak. Now that they were adults and no one was watching, to her, she could be with Anahita freely. Cybil reciprocates his feelings. She was determined to be independent from her family immediately, having worked and drove since she was 16, and scored a small apartment. After several rounds of talking, Cybil convinces Anahita to move in and emancipate himself from his parents, reminding him of the sore spot between him and his father, he having inadvertently isolated Anahita from everyone he knew but not finding a way to help Anahita through all of it. Despite his parents' protests, Anahita moves out quickly.Cybil's insecurities tore her and Anahita's brief relationship apart by the time they were 20 years old. Cybil started to break down Anahita's self esteem all over again, she's still scared to be seen with the type of person Anahita is, and Anahita could bare no more from someone who's words held so much meaning. Anahita broke things off and moved back in with his parents. He's angry and heartbroken, still unwilling to open up about his feelings, and hates to be told "I told you so".